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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26240422">Little Nico?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidNightWriter24/pseuds/MidNightWriter24'>MidNightWriter24</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Little!Nico, Protective!Clarisse, Protective!Will, because there is never enough, more tags to be added later</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:28:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,492</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26240422</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidNightWriter24/pseuds/MidNightWriter24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico’s hit with a spell that turns him into a four year-old, and the entire camp goes practically insane trying to keep him from getting hurt or worse.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase, Will Solace/Nico DiAngelo, leo valdez/calypso</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>94</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is currently finished, I might open it up again if people want to see more. Please comment!</p><p>*REOPENED*</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Clarisse’s POV</p><p>Jason, the little twerp, had the audacity to stick me on a quest with two other idiots. I mean, Nico isn’t that bad, I WILL HURT YOU IF YOU TELL ANYONE, but Ms. Innocent? Seriously? Hazel is shocked everytime anyone curses and that’s a lot. She also wants to try and sneak around the monsters and not just REDUCE THEM TO DUST. She’s ruined many a battle with some camouflage, or paying off one too many idiot mortals with gems. Soon, there will be something even worse, NEGOTIATION. I’m the WORST at that. Probably why Hazel’s here. I just need to protect her, and keep Nico from getting injured because Will would FLIP OUT. </p><p>We’ve finally reached a shrine to Hebe, goddess of youth. She isn’t honored much, but one of her kids showed up at camp recently, Pablo or something? So, we need to ask how best to honor her. </p><p>“Lady Hebe? Anyone here?” I call. Hey, I might be disrespectful to other demigods but not the gods. I have no wish to be turned into an animal or worse. A bright light flashes, and small baby monsters cover the floor of the temple. Nico whips out his sword and stands ready for an attack. I whip out my spear, and Hazel starts cooing over a baby dracena. Seriously, does she have no survival instinct?! A baby chimera bites at Nico and he slashed out, reducing it to dust. Another bright light flashes, and a female voice sounds. </p><p>“Annoying heros! Always reducing my babies to dust!” Hebe finally appears, and she’s glaring right at Nico.</p><p>“Your babies?”</p><p>“Well, I’m babysitting for Echidna, of course. Now, you killed one of them!”</p><p>“It attacked me, Lady Hebe!” Nico protested.</p><p>“It’s a he, and you scared him!” She pointed at Nico and he was enveloped in a bright light.</p><p>When the light cleared, a smaller version of Nico sat on the floor. Hazel ran over to him, a panicked look on her face. Before she could get to him, a skeletal kitten rose from the ground.</p><p>“Kitty!” Nico giggles, reaching for it. Giggling? That’s so far outside of what he normally does, it’s in a different universe. Hazel and I just stare in confusion as Nico plays with the kitten.</p><p>“Much better.” Hebe nods in satisfaction.</p><p>“My lady, if I may ask, what did you do to him?” Hazel asks respectfully.</p><p>“Oh, I like you. I simply returned him to a four year-old.” The goddess explained.</p><p>“Lady Hebe, could you change him back? It was an accident, and the baby will reform soon enough.” I’m seriously risking becoming a child myself, but Hebe just chuckled.</p><p>“No. Now, why are you here?” Hazel began explaining what Jason was doing to her, and I scooped up Nico.</p><p>“No! Wanna play with the kitty!” He’s squirming to get down. Damn, he’s all wriggly and unwilling to cooperarte!</p><p>“How about we play a game?” Having finished explaining, Hazel walks over to us. Lady Hebe had vanished, apparently satisfied. Hazel placed her palm on the ground and summoned a uncut ruby from the earth.</p><p>“Do you want to make the rock shiny and pretty?” Children of Hades can do that?</p><p>“Sure!” Nico exclaimed happily. He plopped down, immediately concentrating on the rock. I grab Hazel by the arm, towing her outside of hearing but within sight of Nico.</p><p>“What the hell do we do now?! Oh, Will’s gonna freak!”</p><p>“Calm down. Hades can tell us what he likes as a kid, and the curse should wear off within a few weeks. Lady Hebe decided not to make it permanent.”</p><p>So, now I’m stuck carting Ms. Innocent and a child across an entire state. This is gonna be the worst thing since the Labrinth, isn’t it?</p><p> </p><p>Will’s POV</p><p> </p><p>I was calmly sorting through medical files when Annabeth barged through the door, an Iris-Mesage trailing her.</p><p>“Will! Gods, you have a lot of work to do.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Nico’s a four year-old.”</p><p>After dropping that bomb on me, Annabeth sat back and waited for my reaction. How did that even happen? Four year-olds are cute, sure, but they are super inquisitive and have NO respect for rules. Adding to that Nico can shadowtravel, summon the dead, and control shadows. A four year-old Nico in a demigod camp full of sharp weapons and dangerous monsters? This is a recipe for disaster.  Scratch that, this is a recipe for destruction. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Percy is shocked by Nico’s new appearance.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m reopening this, after it was  posted there’s currently 34 Kudos. I’m not that good y’all! Still, this was mostly because of Kittyjune26’s reminder of Percy having seen Little Nico before. So shoutout to you!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Percy’s POV</p><p> </p><p>I drove at warp speed all the way to Camp Half-Blood because my girlfriend said she had important news. Wow, that sounds sad when I say it like that. I parked near camp, and hiked in the rest of the way. Just after I crested the hill, two figures appeared from the distance. One of them had a sack or something slung over their shoulder. They were running from this huge lion-like monster and I had to help. As they got closer, I saw that it was Hazel and Clarisse. What is scary enough to make Clarisse, daughter of a war god, killer of a dracon run? Clarisse was holding a small body, looked like a child.</p><p>Shaking my head, I pulled out Riptide and ran to meet them.</p><p>“Hey Percy. That thing chasing us is seemingly invincible. Blades have no effect on it, and neither did anything I could do.”</p><p>“Great, the Nemean Lion’s respawned.” Last time I killed this thing, I had Zöe by my side and Thalia, along with some nasty astronaut ice cream. How was I going to get it to open its mouth?</p><p>“Hazel, summon a huge chunk of some sort of shiny metal. I’ve got it from here.” Immediately, a chunk of bright silver rose to the surface. It reflected sunlight like a highly polished mirror. Scooping it up, I did a U-turn, racing back towards the lion and keeping the surface angled downwards. This was a crazy idea, but if it worked...</p><p>Diving to the side, I raised the mirror just as the lion would have trampled me. That directed a beam of sunlight directly into the lion’s eyes. It sat back onto its haunches with a cry of pain, and started sneezing. I quickly ran up and jabbed Riptide through the top of its jaw, into the brain, causing it to crumble to dust.</p><p> </p><p>(A/N: I do this whenever I step outside on a sunny day. It sucks.)</p><p> </p><p>Jogging back to the hill, I didn’t see Hazel or Clarisse anywhere. Voices were coming from the Big House, so I headed there first. I stepped inside, and Chiron turned to me.</p><p>“Hello Percy. The Nemean Lion?”</p><p>“Done and dusted.” I replied, leaning against the wall.</p><p>Annabeth shot across the room like an arrow, hugging the breath out of me.</p><p>“Don’t ever do that again!” She accused, whacking me on the arm.</p><p>“Ow! Sorry, next time I’ll get Jason to help.” I apologized, rubbing my arm. I turned to the rest of the room, seeing Will, Piper, Hazel, and Clarisse sitting around in various chairs.</p><p>“Hey guys, what’s up?”</p><p>“So,” Hazel began, “This is Percy, Nico.” She seemed to be talking to a giant stuffed dragon. Why would she be introducing me to Nico? He knows me, heck he had a crush on me! A small face peeped from behind the dragon. A small mop of black hair, wary dark eyes, pale skin. I dropped to my knees in surprise.</p><p>“Hey, buddy. Does your stuffed animal have a name?” I asked gently, my mind awhirl.</p><p>“Her name is Muffin! She’s squishy. Mr. Will gave her to me.” Nico babbled on, but I got stuck on the wide smile on his face. He looked like when I first met him, small and happy near his sister. I tuned back in to catch the end of his sentence.</p><p>“... fish-pony for me? We saw some in the river one time and they looked so pretty!”</p><p>“Sure, I can take you to see the hippocampi.” Anything to make him keep smiling! Nico beamed back at me and launched himself at me, letting the stuffie fall to the side. He was hugging me and squirming with happiness. I could feel his little heart beating super fast.</p><p>“Thank you, Perry!”</p><p>“Percy,” I corrected him. “Would you want to go see them after lunch?”</p><p>“Yes!” He squealed, flinging his hands in the air. Now that he wasn’t hiding behind Muffin, I could see his outfit. He had on a neon yellow smiley-face hoodie, green pants, and red sneakers. He kinda looked like Meg McCaffrey. He raced over to Hazel and bounced up and down in front of her.</p><p>“Can we, can we, can we?! I wanna see fish-ponies again!” His excitement was contagious and everyone was smiling.</p><p>“You bet, just after lunch.” Hazel replied, gathering him up into a hug. He hugged her back, tiny arms unable to reach all the way around her. After she let go, he bounced over to Will and tugged on his pant leg. </p><p>“Can Muffin go too?”</p><p>“Of course.” Will nodded, still smiling. Nico jumped up and down and raced to get her. After grabbing her, he climbed up into Clarisse’s lap and plopped down. He curled up with a sigh getting comfortable and everyone stared at him. She scared most of the younger campers, with her badass attitude and big weaponry. And yet, Nico appeared to have fallen asleep in her lap? I glanced at the others who looked just as stunned as I felt. Clarisse was sitting stiffly, evidently unsure of what to do. She didn’t usually interact with kids, aside from Chuck who didn’t count being a satyr and Coach Hedge/Mellie’s kid.</p><p>Hazel with a massive effort tore her eyes away and began telling us what happened on her quest in a hushed tone. They’d really been through a lot, and Nico was still remarkably powerful as a child.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I just love Clarisse being all protective of little Nico. It just gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling, expect to see more of this.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hazel explains everything</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hazel’s POV</p><p> </p><p>I kept my voice low to not wake little Nico as I told the others about our quest. After all, it was a rather long story.</p><p>A couple days earlier...</p><p>Nico was missing again. For what the fifteenth time now? Clarisse and I were running all over the place, trying to find him. He had seemingly disappeared! Turns out, he was in the basement playing with the skeleton of a bird that he’d raised. After that, we decided one of those child leashes we’d seen in the window of a clothing store weren’t such a bad idea. While we were shopping for one, the Nemean Lion sprang through the front window, shattering it into a million pieces. Landing on top of the display of children’s sports clothing, it roared and decapitated a nearby mannequin. I scooped up Nico and Clarisse unsheathed the sword she carried, launching herself at the lion. She would’ve killed it with the first couple of blows to the head, neck, and chest, but her blade just slid off, like the lion’s coat was made of Kevlar. Her blade shattered in her hands when she tried to stab it in the heart, and the lion unsheathed it’s claws, gouging the stone floor. It tried to bite her and she had to quickly duck. I launched a couple of watches at its head and tangled its legs with coats, but nothing was slowing it down. That’s when Nico got free from my arms and yelled ‘Bad Kitty! No!’. I honestly thought he was going to get eaten when he summoned some sort of huge monster skeleton, then shadowtraveled onto its skull. </p><p>The monsters grappled, and Clarisse had to climb the skeleton monster’s rib cage to get Nico down. He fought her, but he was obviously tired and couldn’t put up much of a fight. We raced out the door and got a few blocks away before Nico passed out. From there, we stole a couple cars, rode the bus, took three taxis, and hopped a train. None of them got very far before the lion caught up, but we managed to make it near camp, and Percy took it from there.</p><p>Present day</p><p>I finished my tale, and sat back in my chair to let everyone think for a couple minutes. </p><p>“Oh gods.” Will groaned, dropping his head into his hands. I agreed with him.</p><p>“How in Tartarus did you keep him entertained?” Annabeth questioned. In answer, I summoned an uncut gem from the ground. </p><p>“Children of Hades can manipulate properties of gemstones. He loves arranging them with bones to make patterns on the ground, like modern LEGO blocks. We also Iris-messaged Hades to figure out what he liked to eat and what candies he could be bribed with. We got him out of many a hiding spot with black licorish jellybeans.”</p><p>“Black licorice is the worst.” Percy protested.</p><p>“He seemed to like them. It’s better than the espresso ones he somehow got. That was a long night.” I shuddered at the memory. He’d eaten half the bag and it was two A.M. before we could get him into his pajamas. Not even the jewels had entertained him for long, and by the time he fell asleep, I was almost ready to drop. Clarisse had taken an surprisingly gentle manner with him, and was intensely protective. As a result, he loved playing with her. </p><p>“NO.” Will said, looking panicked at the very thought. “Once one of the Stoll brothers sold some to Kayla. She was up all night, treating patients, cutting bandages, doing jumping jacks, anything to burn off the excess energy. Needless to say, the entire cabin jinxed the Stoll brothers. And Kayla only had five. After he ate half of a bag. I’m surprised he ever fell asleep that night.”</p><p>Chiron looked super worried at that. “What should the nymphs prepare for lunch? I think giving him one of the enchanted plates would be a terrible idea.” </p><p>“I agree he’d just ask for sweets, and strawberries. A PB&amp;J sandwich, carrots, and tomatoes should be fine with a glass of milk.” </p><p>Percy and Annabeth were staring at me in surprise. <br/>“That’s exactly what his younger sister loves for lunch.” Annabeth commented.</p><p>“We actually got the idea from Thalia. We met up with her, and all of the Hunters could not stop fussing over him. He even charmed Artemis, and she let him pet the ‘shiny deer’.” </p><p>“Well, he is super adorable.” Piper chimed in. She’d been so quiet, I’d almost forgotten about her. We all looked back over at Clarisse’s lap. It was empty! Nico was gone! Where could he have crawled off to as a such a little child?!</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, there’s going to be a couple of one shots in a Little Nico series because I can’t decide where I want this to go. Hopefully you peeps’ll check it out!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. To Be Edited Later (after I select a next chapter)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Explanation of the weirdness I’m going to do with this. Please read!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>So, I can’t decide where I want Nico to be found for Chapter 4. My ideas so far are:</p><p>Camp Jupiter (Reyna and Frank)</p><p>The Woods (dryads)</p><p>A Cave (crystal powers)</p><p>Olympus (various shenanigans) Written!</p><p>Hades returning him to camp (we’d see a bit of daddy hades)</p><p>Please comment your thoughts and/or suggestions!</p>
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